Eddas

Eddas

You all came together in an ale tent, having made your way to the location of your uncle Hod. You spent some time questioning each other: who was Hod? Is there anything to the inheritance other than the farmstead? What are all these people doing here?

Eventually, you decide to join together to compete in the tourney; to learn about each other, and possibly win some money without risking your lives.

During the night after the first day of competition, you were awakened early in the morning to the news that the Konungar’s daughter had been kidnapped. Banding together, you searched for some sign of the kidnappers.

You managed to find some tracks, which led to what was obviously waiting horses. Following those, led off to the Great Northern Forest.

Ambushed by another team of competitors from the tourney, you managed to defeat them handily and continue the pursuit into the forest, where you came upon more kidnappers, including the well-known adventurer Everet Goldslade.

Again you managed to defeat them handily, leaving one of the thugs alive to interrogate.

Unfortunately, he had little information, indicating that he had been hired by the now-dead Everett Goldslade.

Following the trail further into the forest, you finally came upon a small camp with several more of the kidnappers, and a tiefling warlock.

You dispatched the thugs handily, and moved in to battle the warlock, when he raised his fallen companions as zombies, which proved harder to kill, and inflicted considerable damage on the party before they were finally destroyed.

With all of the immediate enemies defeated, you had the time to properly search the camp, and found several things of interest.

The princess was tied up and unconscious un the raised platform in the center of the camp. She appears to be unharmed.

Grateful to be rescued from the kidnappers, she presented Ivar with her silver ring on a necklace. A faint enchantment resides in the ring.
The necklace acts as an Amulet of Protection +1

The tiefling had a nice dagger tucked into his belt, under his robes.
Daggar +1

Hidden amongst the rocks and other items under the raised platform was a lockbox containing 500gp.

Searching the thugs, warlock and the rest of the camp found a number of weapons and other mundane items, as well as a pair of horses tied to a fallen tree about 30’ from the raised platform.

With the princess in hand, and 2 more horses, you quickly made your way back to the tournament grounds. It was very late at night when you finally arrived back, yet you were ushered Directly into the Konungar’s tent.

A tall, slender man, he wears his black hair tied back, and keeps his beard trimmed. He wears a mail vest, and excellent quality furs. A broadsword is never far from his left hand.

He is very thankful for your rescue of his only daughter, and as thanks, he officially bestowed upon each of you the rank of Riddar (Knight). This is the lowest rank of nobility, and is not hereditary. It does however allow each of you to have up to 6 armsmen under your colours.

In addition, he bestowed upon the group a chest of 500gp, which he hopes the PCs will put towards rebuilding the old keep and farmstead.

Food is brought in, and the Konungar invites you to tell your tales over some food and mead.

After watching the last of the tournament visitor’s departing, you decided to explore the Keep you had inherited.

There was little of interest, apart for some signs that it had been used both recently and in the past as shelter by travelers or adventurers. No secret passages or anything unusual was found anywhere.

Afterwards, the group decided to undertake a tour of the local area; to meet the inhabitants of the local farmsteads and to get a better feel of the land around the Keep.

You spent a week visiting the various farms and homesteads, meeting many of the locals. Most seemed pleased to see you, happy at the news of someone establishing a strongpoint between them and the forest. Many had lost much to the raids of the forest’s residents. Only a few seemed either not interested or outright hostile.

After the tour throught he ‘civilized’ areas, you headed into the forest, to check out the ruins where you had rescued the princess and see what other monsters plagued the nearby area.

It went fairly well; you handily defeated a couple small bands goblins (and collecting a number of weapons, as well as an orb+1 from a goblin shaman) and even some giant spiders. Finally, you came across the den of the ankhegs.

A pair of the adults ambushed you, exploding from the earth around the warlock and his horse. You defeated them, but not before they killed the horse and severely injured a number of the group.

With the adults defeated, you took a short rest and proceeded into the lair.

The tunnels below the rock were twisted, and very low; you had to crawl in many areas. It took several hours to fully explore the tunnels, slaying a half dozen of the young ankhegs along the way.

In the tunnels you managed to find several items of interest. Apparently the ankhegs had accosted a number of people before falling to your blades. Their weakness is now your profit.

You arrived back at the tower safely from your explorations of the surrounding territory. AS you put away your gear and treasure, you became aware that something had changed in the tower. It quickly became apparent that somehow, the tower had gained an additional floor.

Investigating, you came to realize that the floor was only on the inside. The exterior of the tower was the same height as before, but there was the extra floor on the inside.

Three doors led off the main stairwell at the mysterious floor. Investigating each in turn, you found that they went to 3 nearly identical corridors, with a half-dozen living quarters off of each, and a large sitting room at the end. Consideration of the layout of the rooms led you to believe that many of the rooms shared the same space as others, yet there was no passage between the co-existent rooms.

Each of the rooms contained some small valuables & trinkets & loose coins. These were quickly taken by the party.

The sitting rooms proved to be dangerous, as the armour stands located inside animated and attacked. The first battles with the animated armours were hard-fought, but by the third, you had the battle well in hand and defeated the armours readily. (IE you rolled higher than 4s…)

When defeated, each of the animated armours triggered a mystical blue rune in the air as it fell. Those with mystical knowledge were sure the runes were connected to something, but were unable to determine what.

Once all of the armours were defeated, it became fairly obvious to what the armours were linked; a 4th door had appeared in the main stairwell. Covered with 6 blue runes, it required the work of everyone together to open the portal. Unfortunately, it took more than one attempt to open the door, setting off a large blast of lightning into the stairwell with each failure.

The door opened into a large circular room with 3 doors leading off the other side. Careful inspection revealed the pressure plates in front of each of the doors, which were quickly disabled by the rogue. As Ghesh went to open the central door however, a new suit of animated armour arose out of the centre of the room, and attacked the group.

All of the party members managed to get into the room before they were blocked out by the mystical blue field that filled the doorway as the armour emerged, and the battle was joined.

This suit of animated armour, plate instead of the previous chain, proved to be significantly more resilient than the ones before. It also let off several large blasts of lightning into the room, which were more and more devastating with each subsequent blast.

Finally though, the armour was defeated & destroyed; only its weapon and remnants of the armour remained.

Upon examination, the weapon was revealed to be a +1 lightning morningstar.

With the defeat of the armour accomplished, the party withdrew to bandage their wounds and rest before examining the 3 doors leading out of the room.

Come morning, the freshly rested party returned to the room with the armour scraps still sitting on the floor. Examining each of the doors in turn, you found them locked. With a little effort however, the rogue was able to unlock them.

Behind each was a small room, 10 feet by 10 feet, with a large chest bolted to the floor at the back wall.

Ever suspicious, you examined the floor and chest for traps. Finding pressure triggers on each of the chests, Zanne attempted to disable the traps. She was successful with 2 of the chests, but managed to set off the trap on the third, and was quickly impaled by a trio of spears shooting out of the chest.

Despite that minor setback, you managed to open the chests and were pleased to find some valuables inside.

Spending a few days cleaning up the keep, your rest was interrupted by a small earthquake. Very unusual, you decided to investigate. The interior of the Keep was undisturbed, but Zanne and Ivar quickly found a small chasm had opened in the courtyard.

Investigating, you found that it was easily climbable, and let down to more level corridor, about 50’ below. Pushing further, you came upon what appeared to be a large burial chamber. Eight smaller tombs walls leading up to a much larger tomb at the far end. The entire cavern was dimly lit by a pale white glow from the stone.

As you approached the entrance to the burial chamber, you wer attacked by a group of what Leif believed to be earth spirits; similar to elementals, but lesser in power and of a single element.

Exploring the burial chamber, you encountered many things. Larger, more powerful versions of the earth spirits attacked you, in addition to collapsing floors and cave-ins making exploration difficult. But in the end you made your way through the minor tombs, which contained some small treasures, to the larger, main tomb.

Unlike the doors to the smaller tombs which were simple stone slabs, the entrance to the main tomb was set with a complicated puzzle lock. Working as a group you were eventually able to unlock the door, but not without setting of the protective magics several times.

Entering the main tomb, another weak section of floor was found before another, plain, door. The second room contained a great sarcophagus, surrounded in treasure. Investigating further, the group was attacked by a more powerful earth spirit as they examined the tomb. Durign the fight, it summoned more of the smaller earth spirits.

The group was victorious against the greater earth spirit and its minions, though it proved a much tougher opponent than the ones encountered previously.

Heading back to the tunnel by which you entered, you found it collapsed and impassable. Searching the chamber, and dodging several more sections of collapsing floor, you found another tunnel leading upwards near the main tomb.

Climbing carefully, you quickly came to what appeared to be artificial, constructed hallways. Carefully looking around, you found several storerooms, a great pair of double doors, and a spiral staircase leading upwards.

The great double doors led to a wide, low staircase leading down a few feet into a great hall. In the center of the hall, sat a great sphere of multi-coloured lights with a large stone pedestal before it. Carvings on the pedestal could just barely be seen from the staircase, as the light from the sphere is near blinding.

Being in bad shape to investigate the sphere, you withdrew, and went to examine the staircase. Climbing carefully, you made your way up a ways before coming to a single dor at the top of the staircase.

Prepared for the worst, you pushed open the door, to find yourselves on the second floor of your keep, emerging from one of the interior walls. Shocked by the experience, you accidentally let the door close behind you, but were able to find and open it again after a few moments search.

After a few days rest after returning from the underground catacombs you decided to investigate the giant glowing sphere that you had glimpsed in the keep’s basement level.

Apart from the giant sphere, which was painful to look at for too long, there was a pedestal with 8 small slots standing before it, and a hall leading out on the far side of the room, behind the sphere.

Down the hall were 8 branching tunnels, each leading to a room containing a small coloured crystal. Each room also contained an obstacle that had to be overcome in order to retrieve the crystal.

White: a sphere of grey material that resisted almost any attack
Red: 5 fiery bats that attack anyone entering the room
Orange: a pool of acid with the crystal hidden in its depths
Yellow: a hallway of lightning bolts that had to be avoided
Green: a large steel chest with numerous poison traps that had to be disarmed
Blue: a mighty frost worm that attempted to devour any trespassers
Indigo: a huge shelf covered in false crystals that damaged the mind of anyone touching them
Violet: a powerful rune inscribed on the floor that sucked the life out of the crystal holder

The party managed to overcome the challenges, though the frost worm was nearly their end.

With all the crystals in hand, the party returned to the main room with the sphere. Examining the pedestal, no particular markings were found for which to input the crystals. But after a few experiments, it was found that the order did not matter.

With all the crystals placed in the slots on the pedestal, the sphere was deactivated, revealing a number of things.

The first items of interest were a battle axe, a suit of hide armour and a large book floating in the air.

The axe is a +1 Defensive Axe (AV p67), set with symbols of Heimdall.

The hide armour is Veteran’s Hide Armour +1 (AV p55)

The large book contains many, many pages of scrawled notes and passages, as well as numerous diagrams and pictures. Can pick out the name Vikk on the cover

The other item of interest was a steep staircase leading downwards from what would have been the center of the sphere.

Carefully proceeding down the staircase, you found a 5-sided room at the base. The stairs emerge from the center of the wall of the 1 side, and a door sits at the center of the wall of each of the other 4 sides.

The doors are each inscribed with a design. All are similar yet different. Each appears to be a depiction of a natural disaster; an earthquake, a flood, a great forest fire and a terrible tornado, and what appears to be a comet in the sky.

After a few moments discussion, you believe that the designs on the doors are representations of the 4 Heralds: comets that are supposed to arrive at the time of great natural disasters.

• The Ice Moon (water): appears when winter is coming
• The Red Eye (fire): appears in times of extreme heat, heat waves, fires, volcanoes, etc
• The Harbringer of Tempests (air): appears in times of great storms, hurricanes
• The Shattered Moon (earth): appears in times of earthquakes, droughts, etc.

Examining the doors closely, they have no locks or handles of any sort, and Leif is able to determine that each bears a powerful dwoemer.

In order to replenish supplies, the group decided to head to Descott, the seat of the Yarl. The trip was uneventful, and several stops were made along the way, at various small villages and farmsteads, to meet the locals, and begin to recruit some workers to begin the reconstruction of the farmhouse, the clearing of the well, and other long-overdue work around the ruins of the Keep.

Arriving in the capital, the group spent some time getting to know the capital, being the largest city any of them had ever visited.

Asking around town for workers, the group found several names of interest.

• Ozgeth One-Leg. A half-orc blacksmith, he had been driven out of the city, unable to support himself with no customers willing to use his services.

• Ferthing the Fence. A nearly bankrupt merchant, his business had fallen on hard times due to rumours that he dealt with ‘Warlocks’.

• Valla the Witch. A beautiful young priestess, cast out of her village for being a ‘Witch’, she now preaches the word of Freya on the streets of Descott.

Meeting the various unique personalities, the group decided to recruit Ozgeth, needing a competent blacksmith to help rebuild. Extolling their acceptance of non-humans, and meeting his few conditions, the group convinced Ozgeth to move to the Keep.

With Ozgeth recruited, the group then went on to work on recruiting workers and arranging for supplies to be sent as needed. This proved to be more difficult than first anticipated and required 2 weeks of work.

With the workers secured, the group, always looking for more information, went on to check for rumours around town. They quickly found tales of a farmstead suffering from unusual attacks to their livestock, and decided immediately to investigate.

Heading to the site of the attacks, the group was met by a small group of farmers who quickly led them to the site of the latest attack.

Investigating the area, the group quickly found tracks that they determined to be those of the attackers.
Following the tracks led to a large cave in a nearby wooded area, where they were attacked by a quartet of wolf-sized lizards.

A quick, vicious battle ensued, but the group was successful in defeating the lizards, and, after a short rest, proceeded to explore their small lair.

Apart from the remains of several animals, including goats from the farms, there was the half-eaten corpse of a lone humanoid.

After having defeated the large horned lizards, the group headed back to the farmsteads to report their success. Overjoyed at your dealing with the beasts killing their livestock, the farmers welcomed you, and provided you with a delicious feast, as well as a place to sleep for the night.

Come morning, the group headed back to Descott, after another large meal provided by the farmers.

With the intention of spending some time exploring the ruins near the city, the group wanted to make some maps of the area. Finding paper to be both rare and expensive, the group settle on hide, which proved to be much cheaper.

With map-making tools in hand, the group travelled around the ruins to come at them from the far side, hoping that there would be more interesting things to be found.

About a half-hour into the ruins, they were accosted by a small group of thugs demanding 5gp for passage.

Unwilling to pay the toll, the group quickly beat the thugs when they attacked.

Searching them, they found little of value, & following their tracks back found little at their hideout either.

15gp
50sp
1 extra suit of tattered chain armour

With the bandits/thugs defeated, the group decided to have Ghesh climb one of the taller ruins to see if he could spot anything of interest.

Moving back to near the battle with the bandits, Ghesh quickly scaled one of the taller buildings and took a look around.

There was little to see, apart from what appeared to be a small fire some distance away, its smoke rising into the sky.

Deciding to investigate, the group came across a group of large rats digging at a hole in the ground.

The rats were dispatched quickly, but at some cost. Both Ghesh and Thorgrim became sick from the festering bits of the rats.

Investigating the hole the rats were digging, the group saw that it opened into a large underground chamber. However the hole was quite small, and required significant work to open large.

Ghesh, while working to open the hole further, caused it to collapse, and fell into the room below.

The rest of the group were more careful, and climbed down carefully using a rope.

Exploring the room, the group came across a partially crushed skeleton of a giant, which attacked them as they got too close.

Tougher than the rats and bandits, the giant managed to score a few powerful blows before succumbing to the attacks of the group and collapsing.

Searching the room found little of value, apart from some items on the giant skeleton. All the other materials in the room were long decayed and ruined.

The giant has both his battleaxe (usable as a greataxe) and a silver ring.

The ring can be worn as a bracelet by a medium creature and is worth 60gp.

Debate began whether to rest for a few minutes, or take a longer rest.

After defeating the giant skeleton, the group decided that it was time for a rest. Camping out in the room with the skeleton, they passed an uneventful 6 hours bandaging their wounds, eating and resting.

During their rest, they noticed the start of rain outdoors.

Once they were ready to go, they opened the door, which led to a hallway. A collapse had blocked of the majority of the hall, but they could see a staircase leading down, only partially blocked by the rubble.

They spent a bit of time clearing the rubble, making more room to squeeze through. Once they were satisfied with the size of the hole, they proceeded down the stairs, to another locked door.

The lock was not difficult to open, and beyond the door was a short hallway with 3 doors; two to the left, and one ot the right.

The 2 doors to the left had little; the first was mostly collapsed, and the second an empty holding room.

The door on the right led down another short staircase, and into a large temple. The room was mostly empty, with a large ice-covered altar near the far end.

The more perceptive could just make out a symbol under the ice. Moving to investigate, Ghesh and Leif moved into the room. As they reached the center of the room, a trio of large ice-bound humanoids rose up around the altar.

The group managed to quickly dispatch the beasts, and found a small trove of valuables pouring from a compartment in the back of the altar.

The coins are larger and heavier than standard Estvar coinage, and are worth 5 sp each. Total about 300gp worth of coins.

Frost Longsword +1

Examining the symbol, none were able to identify it.
After a short rest, the group proceeded through the small door in the right wall.

The door opened into another small hall, this one with 2 doors leading from it.

The door on the right side led to an anteroom with a large mural carved on the far wall.

It is of a large underground cavern, half-filled with water. At the far end, a stone pier juts out into the water, offering an easy landing point. A skiff is tied t the pier. Beyond the pier, a path leads to a set of massive doors carved into the far wall. Massively wide and tall, they are carved in representations of great battles. Near the top of the doors, carvings of Valkyries can be seen, watching over the battle and lifting up the spirits of the valiant dead.

The last room was another temple, though much smaller than the previous. As they entered, a large glowing blue version of the mysterious symbol appeared over the altar and began blasting the group with thunder and lightning.

The fight with the symbol was short, but brutal. Searching the altar, the group found another secret compartment, this one containing only a large dark, iron key.

With the key in hand, the group retraced its steps, looking for a keyhole in which it fit, but found none.

Returning to the entry room, the group found that there was a terrible storm raging outside. This caused the climb of the rope to be significantly more difficult.

Once outside, the group found that the storm was much worse than it appeared, with horrendous rains, winds and lightning.

The more perceptive members of the group spotted something more dangerous than the storm: a great giant wandering through the ruins. Unfortunately, the giant caught sight of the group, and the party members were forced to flee before it could attack.

Running headlong through the ruins was dangerous, but all the party members managed to escape with only minor injuries.

Regrouping at the edge of the ruins, the group decided to head back to town and rest. It was a long walk back to town in the storm, but the group managed to make it, and found a nice dry inn in which to rest, tales of their exploits netting them free room and board.

Having rested the night after escaping the giant in the ruins, the group spent a bit of time in town investigating the giant’s appearance and looking into the uses for the large iron key found in the ruined temple.

The only lead they found regarding the appearance of the giant is the tale of a similar appearance the previous summer, when a giant fiery figure is said to have appeared in the ruins and hurled a great flaming boulder at nearby farmhouses.

The key proved to be far more difficult. Repeated investigations led to a ‘Priest’ of Odin who examined the key, but had little information, other than it was a ’key to a great portal’. The location of the portal was ‘protected by great magic’.

With little to go on, the group decided to collect the workers and materials they had collected and head back to the tower.

Between the poor weather and the slow pace of the small caravan, it took a full week to return to the tower.

Arriving back at the ruins, the group found that they were not as they had left them: unknown creatures were crawling over the grounds.

Halting the caravan, the group moved closer to the ruins and got a better look at the creatures. Leif identified them as Kruthik, a rare pest-like monster. The few legends of them have them as near-mindless devourers of metals.

As the group moved closer to the keep, they were attacked by a swarm of the Kruthik, with several other swarms moving closer.

In the distance, beyond the Kruthik, a large distortion hung in the air. Rainbow colored bands flanked a tear in the air.

It was a protracted battle; swarm after swarm attacked the PCs as they moved towards the portal. Eventually, the group made it to the portal, and after a short rest, the group plunged through.

The other side was a great chasm, with large crystal outcroppings. Dozens of tunnels lead of from the main chasm, and hundreds of creatures can be seen moving around the chasm. The sky, barely seen above was a blood red, with dark clouds

Similar to the Kruthik the group fought, these appeared to be far less deadly; the jagged, sharpened claws of the beasts were replaced with much more rounded legs.

The beasts also seem to be far less aggressive; they move around the groups feet, completely ignoring you.

However, more of the ‘warrior’ types can be seen moving around amongst the ‘worker’ types.

The group quickly learned that it was possible to hide from the patrolling ‘warriors’ by holding absolutely still.

Examining the portal from the other side, Leif was able to sense a trio of power trails leading from the portal deeper into the chasm.

He believes that the portal is being powered/maintained from elsewhere. If you can disrupt the sources of the power to the portal, it should collapse. Two of the power sources should be enough to cause the portal to close.

Having gone through the portal in the courtyard, the group found themselves in a huge canyon swarming with the Kruthik that had invaded the tower lands.

Moving through the swarm was not difficult; the vast majority did not even seem to notice the presence of the PCs; only the warrior types needed to be evaded, which proved not to be impossible with the huge numbers of the mindless drones milling about.

Moving out from the portal, the group proceeded towards the first of the emitters.

The constant patrols prevented the group from resting, but moving through the swarm was not too difficult.

The group quickly made it to the first emitter, located high up on a rocky shelf, protected by a single thorn-shooting Kruthik. Though it shot at the group as they climbed the wall,, it did not prove much of a defender for the large crystal sustaining the portal.

The group managed to defeat the Kruthik and destroy the crystal. The crystal was surprisingly fragile, though it did seem to be somewhat resistant to energy. The group also found a large crystal nearby that looked to be valuable.

The crystal can be sold for 300gp, or used as residuum for the creation of magic items.

With the first crystal destroyed, the group pressed on to the next, which proved to be somewhat farther from the portal than the first.

On their way, the group came across the corpse of an unidentifiable humanoid being devoured by 2 swarms of the tiny Kruthik. Quickly dispatching the vermin, the group searched the body, finding g some valuables.

50gp
50 sp
Bloodclaw, Shortsword +1

The second crystal was guarded by a much larger, vicious acid-spitting Kruthik. The battle was much more dangerous than the previous Kruthik, but the party quickly emerged victorious.

With the second emitter destroyed, the portal began to become unstable; the PCs could see it flickering in the distance.

Quickly moving towards it, the PCs had to evade a number of swarms of the Kruthik that were going berserk, attacking anything that approached.

They managed to get through the portal without having to fight.

As the group jumped through the flickering portal, there was a bright flash, a glimpse of the tower courtyard, and then suddenly they found themselves standing on a snow-covered windswept pinnacle of rock, far from their tower.

Freezing from the sudden cold, the group stumbles toward a large cave at the foot of the promontory.

Moving inside, you can see flickering firelight from deep inside. Moving cautiously, the group comes across a great natural cavern, containing a grizzled old giant sitting on a throne made out of the stone of the cavern in front of a great bonfire.

He looks like an aged man, obviously once young and powerful, his shoulders have begun to stoop, and his hair is long grey and started to wither. The lines of his face almost completely hide the strap of the patch over his right eye. The symbol of 3 intertwined triangles can be seen in the corner of his thick fur cloak.

“I mean you no harm. I am sorry for the way in which I brought you here, but I believe it was necessary that we talk, and more subtle methods were not working. Sit, warm yourselves.”

He waves his arm, and five stone seats rise up out of the floor of the cavern.